How had I earned this place in his life? This pedestal?
His gaze dropped to me. “No matter what happens, you’re going to be okay. Do you hear me?”
Salt dripped down my face. “You said you’d stay with me.”
“I will,” he said, wiping my cheeks again. “Until I die.”
I’d known this was coming, and yet I still hadn’t believed it. When Theo called in the guards, panic took hold, but I tried to stave it off.
The two men froze in the threshold when they found Lucas. Their hands flew to their weapons.
“There’s no need for that,” Theo told them. “Colonel Scott is turning himself in. He will go peacefully.”
Hesitantly, one man pulled out flex cuffs from his pocket. He approached Lucas as one would advance on a feral dog, but Lucas submitted to the zip ties without resistance. As soon as his hands were bound, my mind filled with images of him being marched to the gallows, and I lost it. I leapt at the guard. “No!” I screamed. “Take them off!”
Expecting it, Theo was quick to restrain me. “You can’t!”
“Sophia,” Lucas said, voice calm. “Look at me.”
I met his steady gaze.
“Tall trees. Warm rain. Smell of cypress.” His brows rose. “Picture it.”
Wrestling from Theo’s grasp, I threw my arms around Lucas’s neck. I kissed him hard, in full view of all three men. The guards would probably spread this story through headquarters before I even fell asleep that night, but I didn’t care.
Lucas’s hands were bound in Defiance fetters, and I had no faith he’d ever be free of them.
“You promised,” he whispered when I pulled back from the kiss. “You promised you’d let them take me. You promised you’d stay safe.”
“I lied,” I said with a sob.
“Sophia,” Theo said with his stern general voice. “Let him go.”
My hands obeyed even though I didn’t want them to.
“Take him to the stockade,” Theo said. “Back entrance. Private cell. Don’t let anyone see you if you can help it. And his presence here is classified, soldiers. Do you understand?”
The soldiers nodded. “Yes, sir, General.”
Tears flowed as I watched Lucas be taken from Theo’s office, his gaze on mine until the last second. When he was gone, I crumpled to my knees.
“I’m going to call for Dr. Akbari,” Theo said, though the words echoed from far away.
Lucas had been right all along. I was so sure that Theo would honor the exoneration, but did I really expect that Lucas would be allowed to walk freely amongst us?
“This is what is safest,” Theo’s voice murmured from somewhere above me. “Please trust me, Sophia.”
But I trusted nothing.
Not even myself.
33
Public Announcement
Loyalty isn’t clean or moral. It’s understanding the cost of the game and choosing to play it anyway.
—THEODORE HARRISON
